reesesWeb

My PowerBook has just started making a really weird, annoying, loud buzzing noise when the power adapter is plugged in. It doesn't do it when I remove the battery, and it doesn't do it when the battery is in, but the power adapter is unplugged. Ergo, I have this feeling it's the electrical dohickey that frobnozzles the stimwiggle.

It being nearly the end of the year, and as I'm desperate for deductions, this is probably as good a time as any to replace this POS -- I mean, it's 15 months old, so it's obviously ready to be retired, right?

Here's a problem. I have no idea what laptop to buy. If the G5 were out, I'd have reason to upgrade. It's not out, and the G4 PowerBooks currently available aren't really compelling enough. I'm not spending another $3-4k for a nominal bump in processor speed.

My other standby, the source of every laptop I've purchased in the past six years, has been sold to some random Chinese computer company, so Thinkpads aren't really an option until I see how that settles out.

So, I'm struggling with this decision. I refuse to buy a Dell because they're crap, and Toshibas, which might have been an option ten years ago, have fallen drastically by the wayside in terms of quality and relevance.

Here's what I'd like, in order of importance:

Weight: no more than an advertised 5 pounds, which is really about 7 pounds with all the gear. I travel a few thousand miles a week, and while I don't carry it that far, I do run it through airports, rental cars, metros, cabs, and hotels, and I'd rather not exacerbate my fiddler crab syndrome.

Battery Life: did I mention airplanes? I'd like to be able to take a simple 3-hour plane flight and not run out of power while doing normal work that doesn't involve DVD playback. Of course, being able to watch an entire DVD while on battery power would be nice.

Processor speed: at least the equivalent of a 1.6GHz Centrino.

Memory: as long as it can be upgraded to 1.5-2GB, it's fine.

OS: doesn't matter.

Accessories: 802.11g and ether built in would be nice, so no x505, although, if they rev'd the CPU speed, bumped the RAM, and integrated the wireless, hey, I'd be tempted.

Price: doesn't matter. It's a deduction, and the bigger, the better, although a SPARCBook probably isn't for me. It would totally kick ass to have a dual processor UltraSPARC notebook, but the only people I'd impress would be people I really didn't want to associate with.

I've been thinking about some of the Panasonic Toughbooks, especially the subnotebooks such as the W2. It's light on the CPU side, but I think it would be a major quality of life upgrade not to carry a brick around every day.

If you have suggestions, please email me.

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